Norman Garb Basics

Norman Garb?! On a Byzantine page?! WHY?!

I get asked a lot on how I make my husband’s garb, and since I had some projects on the bench, I figured it was as good of a time as any to just add another page to my site. Unlike my Roman and Byzantine garb pages, this is mostly just a “how I dress the Jeff and myself for Normanity.” He’s not into garb like I am, but I haven’t put the work into his Norman clothing as I have my Byzantine. Still, I can’t let him look like crap!

Gieffrei’s name is 12th Century, but he mostly wears Bayeux Tapestry-inspired late 11th Century clothing. For those couple events out of the decade when I need to match him, I have comparable garments, which I will also discuss.

I don’t think we have any extant Anglo-Norman clothing, but we do have Siculo (Sicilian)-Norman pieces, which have been a good inspiration for some work.

Based on the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts 1066, but was really stitched in the 1080s-1090s, Jeff wears the following garments: